Corvallis clips Falcons' wings with late rally.

Pitcher Dylan Stuart (pictured) allowed one run and three hits and struck out eight over seven innings and the Knights scored all their runs in their final two at-bats to beat Kelowna 5-1.

The Knights (22-13, 20-13 WCL) retained their 1.5-game lead atop the West Division of the West Coast League with their sixth win in their last seven games. They are 4-0 vs. Kelowna in 2011 and have won five in a row in the series over the past two summers.

The score was tied at 1-1 when Knights' first baseman David Armendariz of Cal Poly greeted reliever Boomer Hermes with a single to lead off the last of the eighth. Ryan Gorton doubled into the left-field corner; Armendariz ran through a stop sign at third and scored on a very close play with a head-first slide.

Kelowna coach Al Cantwell charged out of the dugout in protest but the call stood and the Knights led 2-1.

"I hadn�t had an RBI all summer so it was the perfect time," Gorton said. "(Hermes) was throwing a lot of off-speed stuff and I was expecting fastball, but in the back of my mind I was thinking off-speed.

"He came with a curve ball and left it up," and Gorton promptly ended his RBI drought by lashing an 0-1 pitch over third base on a line.

Gorton moved to third on David Andriese's infield single and scored when the shortstop threw the ball away trying to back-pick him at third. Andriese took second on the error and stole third on a walk to Kramer Scott; they both scored on Corey Moore's ringing double to left-center gap for a 5-1 advantage.

A senior-to-be at Oregon State, Gorton was on the Knights' grounds crew and didn't plan to play when the summer started. However, injuries left the Knights' shorthanded and Gorton joined the team on July 5 at the behest of coach Brooke Knight.

He hit .188 (3-16) in his first four games but is batting .357 (5-14) in his last four as he rounds into form.

"I hadn�t seen a lot of live pitching," either with the Beavers this spring or before joining the Knights, he said. "But I've been in the cages every day hitting an hour before batting practice even starts," and his diligence is paying off.

Gorton's night didn't end when the game did. He's still on the grounds crew and thus raked, tampered, groomed and tarped the dirt mound and home-plate areas afterward before changing out of his uniform.

Kelowna scored on two two-out singles and a wild pitch in the third inning and held the 1-0 lead into the seventh. Otherwise Stuart was almost untouchable, as he struck out eight Falcons and picked off two, including one of the two he walked.

Reliever Nick Hoover of UC Irvine finished with two scoreless innings and got his first victory of the summer when the Knights broke the deadlock in the eighth. He has a save and a win in his last two appearances.

The Knights tied the game in the seventh despite an interference call that erased a steal by Andriese and resulted in Moore being called out. A two-out walk to Trent Oleszczuk of Seattle University did advance Andriese to second, however, and Corey Davis of Wright State knocked him home with a line-drive single up the middle.

Corvallis had struggled offensively to that point, hitting into two double plays, popping out on two attempted sacrifices and stranding six runners through the first six innings.

Gorton and Moore each doubled and singled and Andriese was 2-for-3, giving him a .500 average (5-10) in his last three games.

The series resumes at 6:40 p.m. on Saturday, when the famous San Diego Chicken performs for the first time at a Knights' game, presented by Allstate Insurance � the Robblee Agency. Chris Johnson (2-0, 3.09) of Portland is the Knights' projected starter.

The series concludes at 5:15 p.m. Sunday. Lefty Jace Fry (1-1, 1.50), an Oregon State signee from Southridge High in Beaverton, is expected to start for Corvallis.

The crowd of 965 increased the Knights� season attendance to 21,362 fans in 17 home dates.